Thursday, August 24, 2006

Making Felted Soap

After a couple requests for directions, I though I'd do one up. The first is for 1 bar at a time. Great for gifts with the holidays coming and it simple for kids to do.


Basic Materials - Few ounces of Fibre, Ziplock bag, knee high stocking and a bar of soap.

Moisten the bar with water. Wrap bar of soap in fibre as tightly as possible. Don't exert yourself. Spritz with water as you go. Helps the fibre hold on to the soap better.


Insert covered bar into stocking and tie loose knot. You can reuse (not rewear) the socks for another bar.

Put soap and sock into Ziplock and put a few inches of warm water in. Enough to mostly cover the soap. Squeeze out as much air as you can from the bag. Rub between your hands for 10-15 minutes. To much and it will felt to the sock. Yikes!
Untie the sock, rub any areas that appear loose and rinse the bar, squeezing out excess water. There you go. Felted Soap.

Multiple soaps - Must have top loading clothes washer. Cut leg off of a pair of panty hose. Do the same process with wrapping the fibre. Place one bar in, tie, place the next one in, tie and so one. You can get 6-10 soaps per leg. It will look like an Genetically Modified Sausage!
Place on Delicate cycle, HOT water wash and COLD rinse. Put in with a towel or pair of jeans. You may need to rerun cycle depending on the feel of the fibre. To loose, run it again.
Happy Felting

6 comments:

Leigh said...

Holly, this is great! Good instructions and photos. I'm definitely going to try this (thinking Christmas gifts!!).

Anonymous said...

What a great idea, Leigh...I'm beating my head against the wall thinking of ideas for a hand-made Christmas and here it is looking me in the face! 'Oh Holly,' she said in a sweet voice, 'what are you doing some afternoon? Fancy a playdate?'

Unknown said...

So cute...I really want to try this...but doesn't all the water and the agitating make the soap lather up inside of the fiber and make a mess of the washing machine? Or does it really matter? I have to do my felting at the laundromat...that's why I ask. I can't afford to buy them a new machine if I screw one up...;)

Stephanie said...

Holly - thanks so much for stopping by - your instructions for Felted Soap are fantastic.

I was actually planning on doing some up for gifts with some handblended fibers - possibly making use some of my "scrap" fibers lol. I hadn't thought to use the stockings or the ziplock - I was planning on doing battle with the wool without anything to help hold it in place! :P

Holly said...

No sense reinventing the wheel Stephanie. Use the sock! It's easier than wrestling slippery soap and fibre all around the kitchen.

tangelled angel said...

Just lost the comment I was maming, not sure if it got through to you! Think this is great Holly, thanks for howing us how to do it, will definately be trying it myself.
What fleeces did you end up getting on Saturday?